A Flame Amidst the Falling Leaves
by DragonJ
Summary: What else happened during the Destruction of Konoha?


Character Summary:  
Arashi – rogue jonin from the Village Hidden in the Mist; extremely proficient at ranged combat  
Jiwari – rogue special jonin from the Village Hidden in the Mist; has a bloodline trait to see heat signatures and uses Fire Style attacks (an oddity for a Mist shinobi); specializes in hunting and assassination  
Tetsuo – rogue special jonin from the Village Hidden in the Mist; specializes in close-quarter combat, an expert with the wakazashi  
Kentaro - based off of a character from Magic: the Gathering.  
See here for my inspiration:  to Fred Gallagher for an extremely awesome line.

**A Flame Amidst the Falling Leaves**

Arashi was not happy, to say the least.

She knew something was wrong with this whole mission from the start. Zabuza had told her that this would be an easy mission; all she had to do was train with the Sound ninja for a few months, then use the Konoha shinobi as target practice when the Sound forces made their assault. Something about her wanted to question this, as the pay seemed just a bit too high for just being a mercenary. But their campaign needed the money, and something like this would pay the bills for a long time.

Arashi sighed. If she hadn't thrown in her lot with Zabuza's group, everything wouldn't have all gone to hell. She would be back in Mist Village running the same boring missions she always ran. But of course, she had to support Zabuza's campaign against the mizukage, and when it failed, Zabuza and his supporters weren't the most welcome in Mist Village after that. She hadn't stayed long enough to find out what they did to the "traitors". So the small group had ended up banding together to gather more funds for another attack on Mist Village. A few, troubled at the sight of these dark times, had tried to defect, but they were quickly shown why Zabuza was called "The Demon of the Hidden Mist". Arashi didn't plan on having that experience, so she fell in line and did her part to build up the funds.

Arashi took off her bamboo hat and ran her hand through her long black hair. And now Zabuza was dead, and she was left without her patron and protector. It hadn't come as a surprise when the Sound Jonin in charge of her unit had curtly told her that her unit's services were no longer required and gotten into a "heated discussion" with her when she had begun to get a bit angry with him on a major issue: where her pay was. Yes, that "heated discussion" was most likely the reason he was on the floor right now in the middle of a rapidly-spreading pool of crimson with a kunai through his forehead. Silly him for not wearing his forehead protector actually on his forehead. Arashi's argument had been very piercing, to say the least.

Unfortunately, the man's chunin assistant had seen the carnage and had escaped. He was probably spilling the tale to whoever was in charge of the Sound and Sand shinobi by now. Arashi sighed again. Guess it was time to get going; maybe she could somehow get her team's collective butts safely out of this deathtrap with all the Konoha, Sound, and Sand shinobi after them. Maybe.

Arashi put her hat back on and stood up.

"Tetsuo, Jiwari, let's get going."

The two other Mist shinobi dropped down from the trees they had been sitting on, picked up the packs with their supplies in it, and prepared to leave.

"Which way?" Tetsuo asked.

"Hold on," Arashi whispered as she raised one hand, "I think we may have some guests."

The wind began picking up, and sand swirled around them. Arashi coughed and squinted as she tried to look through the dust. She knew what was coming next, and her hands flashed in a series of seals as she began gathering chakra into the area surrounding the team.

"Water Style! Water Shield Jutsu!" she cried as a dome of water formed around the three. She could hear the thunks of several sand shuriken impacting upon the shield. With a roar she pushed the chakra outward and expanded the dome, until it dissipated into a fine mist, taking the impromptu sandstorm with it.

As the mist and dust cleared, three Sand shinobi dropped down from the trees.

"So, she wants to play." One of them sneered.

Arashi looked toward Jiwari. He nodded.

"Only those three," he said, "I can't detect the heat signatures of anyone else."

"Then," she murmured, "let's begin."

Arashi's hands quickly formed the series of seals required for the Giant Vortex Jutsu. This would be over in no time at all. She pointed one palm at the Sand Ninja and a whirlwind of water flooded out and engulfed them.

Or so she thought. As she looked more closely at where the Sand ninja had been, she noticed three rising pillars of steam. When the water ebbed away, the three shinobi were still there.

The leader spat into the dirt.

"Did you really think that would work on us? We've been hunting ninjas of the Mist for nearly all our lives, we know your tricks! Our heat shields won't allow water or water-based chakra through. It will merely evaporate into harmless steam."

Jiwari chuckled.

"So, you think you're prepared, huh?"

The Sand leader ignored him, as he was busy preparing his own jutsu while his subordinates slowly circled to confront Jiwari and Tetsuo. Then he looked up, a cruel grin on his face.

"This ends now! Wind Style, G-"

He would have continued, but his torso had suddenly disappeared as a beam of flame shot out from Jiwari's hands.

"Fire Style! Flame Lance Jutsu!"

The legs of the Sand shinobi fell to the ground with a thump as ashes floated through the air.

The sand shinobi closest to Jiwari, angered at his comrade's quick defeat, gave a mighty roar and charged, multiple kunai in his hands, and with a growl, threw all of them at Jiwari.

Jiwari looked to the side, a look of shock on his face as the kunai ripped into his body, and disappeared in a spray of water as the kunai cluttered uselessly to the ground.

"Damn it, where'd he go!" the Sand shinobi cursed as he skidded to a stop.

Unfortunately for the Sand shinobi, where there should have been empty space, there was instead a ninja. Tetsuo reached for the two sheaths on his back and pulled out two wakizashis, one glowing a fiery red and the other an icy blue. The two blades swept forward in horizontal arcs, one sword scorching the air while the other left a frozen wake. The hapless Sand ninja barely had time to raise two kunai in an attempt to block, and then the wakizashis sliced through him, melting one kunai and shattering the other.

"Mist Village Secret Blade Style! Swords of Fire and Ice!" Tetsuo yelled as the two swords cut through the surprised Sand shinobi, the two conflicting elements fusing together and creating a small explosion inside what was left of the man's body.

Chunks of ninja splattered to the ground as Tetsuo rose to meet the next attack, which appeared to be several kunai hovering in midair controlled by the last Sand shinobi. Tetsuo was a whirlwind of blades, blocking each of the kunai attacks and even slicing through some of them, but some were getting dangerously close to him as the Sand ninja relentlessly attacked.

Until a wall of water shot up into the air between him and the kunai, that is. The wave quickly enveloped the kunai and washed them away. Arashi winked and blew a kiss at Tetsuo before turning to the surprised Sand shinobi.

Arashi reached for one of the parasols on her back.

"I haven't had my fun yet!" she exclaimed as she threw it into the air.

The Sand ninja knew what was coming. The parasol would suddenly spray hundreds of sharp senbon into the air, all coming at him. His hands quickly moved as he gathered chakra and a sand shield began to form around him. Grains of sand began fusing in the air above the shinobi to create a barrier harder than steel to prepare for the inevitable Senbon Rainstorm attack. Unfortunately for him, the sand shield would prove to be rather ineffective considering the four senbon now sticking out his throat, courtesy of the kunoichi he should have been watching. He gurgled and fell to the ground dead as the half-formed shield collapsed around him.

"Odd," Arashi giggled, "you'd think people would pay more attention to me than to my toys…"

Tetsuo grinned at her while Jiwari merely rolled his eyes.

She caught the parasol and put it back into its place on her back and her face immediately hardened again.

"There will be more of them. Let's go."

As a unit, the three Mist shinobi disappeared into the trees.

As they left, a ninja wearing a Konoha forehead protector stepped out of the shadows.

"Interesting…"

---

As Arashi and her unit leaped through the trees towards the border of Konoha, she began formulating a plan. She wanted to get the hell out of Konoha, but the villages of Sound and Sand were most-likely off limits also. She definitely couldn't go back to the Village Hidden in the Mist, as sticking her head back in there was liable to get her head chopped off. So…where to go, where to go…

Her thoughts were rather rudely interrupted when the tree in front of her suddenly exploded, sending shards of wood and splinters flying all over the place. Arashi quickly dropped down to the ground, with Tetsuo and Jiwari taking defensive positions in the trees near her, ready to strike if they hadn't been spotted.

Trying to spot the attackers, Arashi glanced up at Jiwari, who pointed in the direction of a nearby clearing. The 3 Mist shinobi speedily made their way toward the clearing, Arashi visible on the ground while the 2 others crept silently through the tree. As they approached the clearing, they caught a glimpse of their attackers. In the center of the clearing stood 3 Sound Jonin. One of them, most likely the progenitor of the attack, had one hand missing and replaced with a cannon of some sort. There were tubes sticking out of his back. Another one had his forehead protector over his eyes and was holding what appeared to be a bowl in one hand. The third one did not have any obvious weapons, but had the handles to two blades strapped in her belt.

The kunoichi with the handles stepped forward.

"You're the one who's been causing so much trouble…" She motioned to her teammates. "Let's take her out."

Bowl-guy pulled out a metal stick and tapped the side of the bowl three times, creating a clear ringing sound, which the bowl shaped and directed toward Arashi. She tried to leap out of the way, but as everyone knows, not much moves faster than sound and her leap turned into a short hop as Arashi's ears began buzzing from the sound. Her head felt muddled and she was having trouble thinking. Cannon-arm raised his arm pressed a button on the cannon. The tubes on his back began taking in air, creating a howling sound as the cannon charged. Then, in a split second, the cannon released shooting a concentrated bolt of sound that warped and twisted the air behind it. Arashi had seen what that bolt had done to a tree, and she wasn't about to let that happen to her. Despite her muddled senses, she managed to roll to the side and dodge the blast as the tree behind her collapsed in on itself.

"Still have some fight left in you? Tch. I guess I'll have to do this the hard way!"

The Sound kunoichi pulled the handles out of her belt and pressed a stud on each of them. A sound like a beehive filled the air as two blades of sound sprung out from the handles. It appeared that the blades were of the same composition as the bolt of sound that had nearly hit her earlier.

"Sound Style! Song of the Mantis!" the enemy kunoichi cried as she charged forward, a blade in each hand. Two clones appeared on the side of the kunoichi as she prepared to strike.

However, Arashi was ready for the attack. The buzzing from the first sound attack had finally worn off and she created the seals and gathered the chakra for a wide-area water attack to hit both the kunoichi and her clones.

"Water Style! Giant Vortex Jutsu!"

A rush of water enveloped the 3 onrushing attackers, sweeping them away. All 3 dissipated in a puff of smoke.

"Wait…" Arashi thought to herself, "if those 3 were all clones…"

She looked up to see the Sound kunoichi dropping down toward her, both blades pointed straight for her head. The buzzing of the beehive-blades had grown to an electrical roar as the twin swords left a glowing path behind them.

"She was above me?! Oshi-"

Arashi steeled herself for the strike. It never came. A ninja leaped from one of the adjacent trees, katana drawn, and bisected the Sound kunoichi before she could strike, and landed gracefully in the center of the clearing. Instead of the rain of blades Arashi was expecting, she instead got a rain of blood, gore, entrails, and an internal organ or two. Aggravating and traumatizing, yes, but certainly better than a blade of sound in the face. There were two thumps as the two halves of the former Sound kunoichi landed in the grass.

"Tets-" Arashi stopped herself as the ninja turned to look at her. He definitely was not Tetsuo. For one, he was a lot older than Tetsuo. His katana was far different from Tetsuo's wakizashis, his hair was silvery-gray rather than Tetsuo's dark brown, and furthermore, he had a Konoha forehead protector. As Arashi was about to inquire about who this shinobi was and why had he saved her, two screams sounded from within the clearing.

Cannon-arm, for one reason or another, was now a flaming corpse on the ground and Bowl-guy's body appeared to be missing a head. Oh, so there were Jiwari and Tetsuo.

Tetsuo was the first to speak. "Sorry Arashi, we got a bit held up. We were trying to get to the back to flank the ninja you were fighting but we sort of ran into a unit of Sand shinobi."

Jiwari continued for him. "Needless to say, we're alive and they're not. Who's your friend?" Then Jiwari realized why exactly something looked amiss. There appeared to be blood dripping off of Arashi's bamboo hat, and what looked to be a portion of an intestine lying on her right shoulder. "Um…and that blood's not yours…is it?"

"No the blood's not mine, luckily," Arashi replied as she brushed the stray body part off her shoulder, "and I'm just as curious as you are to find out the identity of my 'friend' here."

She turned toward the Konoha shinobi.

"So, who are you, and why did you rescue me?"

The Konoha ninja slid his bloodstained blade back into its sheath on his back

"My name is Kentaro. As you may have guessed, I am a Jonin of The Village Hidden in the Leaves. If I am correct in my research, you three are mercenaries. And I am here to offer you a mission."

Arashi raised one eyebrow. Kentaro continued.

"I observed your battle against the Sand shinobi. The village of Konoha is prepared to pay each of you 100,000 ryo to aid in the defense of Konoha. Your unit will be under my command until you are released from service. The mission will end when all Sound and Sand shinobi are driven from the village. Do you accept?"

Arashi looked at Jiwari and Tetsuo, then took off her hat. She gathered a small amount of chakra and used a miniature version of the Giant Vortex jutsu and washed the blood off the bamboo.

"Sure." Arashi said as she put the cleaned hat back on. "After all, a girl's gotta eat."

Kentaro nodded, then gave an oddly catlike smile.

"Then let's go."

The Konoha shinobi leaped into the trees, followed closely by the three Mist mercenaries.

---

As the shinobi jumped from branch to branch, Kentaro began to fill in the Mist missing-nin on their mission.

"This attack has really caught Konoha off guard. The enemy forces have been able to penetrate through the outer defenses and fight their way to the center of Konoha. As we speak, the Sand and the Sound are threatening to overrun our Ninja Academy - a despicable tactic, but a valid one, for Konoha's future will be lost if the Academy falls."

"Guard a bunch of little kids?" Arashi thought to herself. "Just hope they don't get in my way..."

A few minutes later, the ninja arrived behind Konoha's Ninja Academy. A chunin with a scar across his nose ran towards them.

"Kentaro, I was able to evacuate around half of the students before it got too dangerous to take them outside. The rest of them are still trapped in the building! We've already lost too many men - we can't hold them off for much longer." Then, the chunin seemed to notice the Mist shinobi for the first time. "...are these the reinforcements? What about Ibiki's men?"

Kentaro replied.

"Take heart Iruka. Ibiki's men have their own problems and can't reinforce us, but these Mist mercenaries are strong fighters. I observed them wiping out two platoons of Sound and Sand jonin by themselves. I don't know what circumstance brought them here, but I'm glad they're on our side. However Iruka, I need you to try to evacuate the rest of the students. We'll provide cover for you."

Kentaro turned toward the Mist ninja and motioned toward the fighting below.

"Let's go. You have a job to do, and I have my duty to uphold. Follow my lead."

With that, he leaped off the tree and raced down toward the fighting below. Arashi, Jiwari, and Tetsuo ran after him, but could barely keep up.

"How does an old man run so fast?" Jiwari asked Arashi as they flew over the ground.

"Less talking, more running." Arashi snapped back at Jiwari as she quickened her pace, not willing to let Kentaro beat them toward the fighting.

Suddenly, something grabbed at her feet, causing her to trip over and fall facefirst onto the ground. The three shinobi still standing whirled around to see her assailant, a Sand jonin manipulating the beetle-shaped puppet which had tried to grab her. Arashi jumped to her feet.

"You go on ahead," she ordered as the kunoichi pulled out three senbon from her kimono. "I'll deal with him."

The puppet manipulator smirked as Kentaro nodded his assent.

"Fool. You think you can beat me by yourself?" he spat as Jiwari, Kentaro, and Tetsuo ran off. "I've taken down an entire army by myself."

Arashi threw the senbon at his face, but the puppet spread one if its wings and blocked the attack. However, it made no move to counterattack.

"Not yet," the Sand jonin said. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kataki of the Desert Wind. I learned my art from Sasori of the Red Sand himself. And since I like to know who my victims are...what's your name, lovely one?"

"My name is Arashi, and my face will be the last sight you will ever see."

"Then Arashi...let's begin."

The beetle suddenly shot forward like a rocket. Arashi gasped and barely managed to roll out of the way in time. As the beetle turned around for another pass, Arashi made a complicated series of signs.

"Water Style! Water Dragon Missile!" she shouted as a beam of water shaped like a dragon shot out of the dirt, fueled by the groundwater just below the surface. The watery serpent flew straight and true directly at Kataki. He leaped out of the way just in time, but this sent the beetle off course. Unperturbed, Kataki made a hand motion and the beetle's mouth and sides opened.

"Desert Twister!" he yelled as the puppet began spraying senbon in a spiraling arc toward Arashi. Arashi jumped out of the path of the senbon, but the beetle, guided by Kataki, continued tracking her, the senbon straying closer and closer.

But Arashi had finally finished molding her chakra and now released it.

"Water Style! Water Shield Jutsu!" she cried as the familiar blue dome surrounded her. The line of senbon impacted uselessly into the side of the shield with a series of staccato thumps. Arashi continued to hold the dome in place as she observed her opponent. From the outside, the shield looked opaque, but from the inside, Arashi could see clearly through. A drill emerged from the beetle's head as it dove underground.

"So..." Arashi thought to herself. "He's going to try and attack me from below...well, I'll put a stop to that plan."

She twisted the chakra keeping the shield in place.

"Mist Village Combination Attack! Shield and Sword!"

The dome of water suddenly changed shape into a giant sword of water, hovering above Arashi's head. Arashi made another hand motion and a chill wind blew across the battlefield, turning the blade to ice. Before Kataki could react, Arashi made the final hand motion and the blade of ice shot toward him, impaling him right through the gut.

Or so Arashi thought. True, the blade did hit Kataki. But it was what happened after that that surprised Arashi. Kataki exploded into thousands of wooden splinters, some of them hitting Arashi as the force of the explosion created a shockwave that sent them flying outward.

"Wait..so he was in the beetle?!" Arashi thought to herself as she stared on in surprise. "So that means...the human was the puppet!"

The ground beneath her began rumbling, and Arashi leapt aside.

The real Kataki stood before her, the beetle disguise gone, expanded into what it truly was: a suit of armor.

"So...you found out what my trick was...but it's too late. It's time to reveal my true genius!"

He made a series of seals as Arashi prepared herself for the attack.

"Forbidden Puppet Jutsu - Shattered Splinter Style! Human Manipulation!"

"Wha-HUMAN manipulation?!" Arashi thought, right before her limbs went rigid a thin chakra line connecting all the wooden slivers embedded in her to Kataki's hand.

Kataki gave an evil grin, a mad glint in his eye.

"The human puppet of 'me' is designed to explode when attacked - the slivers are fused with my chakra, which allows me to control the puppet. And when the chakra-infused wood meets flesh, it disrupts the body's internal chakra systems - allowing me to control that person as if they were a puppet. You've fallen right into my trap."

He advanced toward her. Arashi tried to do something...anything...but her body wouldn't respond to her brain's frantic commands. Her hands, no longer under her control, began pulling her kimono off.

Kataki was practically drooling now as he leered at the sight of Arashi's helplessness.

"I am definitely going to enjoy this, Arashi..." his eyes glued to her body, "who knew I was going to find such a fine specimen in Konoha?"

Kataki's eyes suddenly widened as two wet clammy hands grabbed his head. Before he could react, his head was twisted one hundred and eighty degrees around, a sickening crack filling the air as his spinal cord snapped. The last sight before darkness overtook him was...Arashi's face?

The Mist kunoichi dispelled the water clone that had snapped the perverted Sand Jonin's neck as Kataki's corpse fell to the ground. She restraightened her kimono, a look of pure hatred on her face. Arashi stomped over to the corpse and with a savage stomp, completely caved in the dead skull, splattering blood and brains all over the ground.

"If I hadn't created that water clone out of the ice blade right before he got me...ugh...who knows what would have happened...?" Arashi whispered to herself as she shuddered in disgust and fury.

"Oh no, the others!" the kunoichi gasped. The battle had taken a lot longer than she wanted it to.

She formed a lens out of water and peered through it at the battle. All she could see were Sand and Sound shinobi and only a few Konoha shinobi rapidly losing ground.

"Aw, shit." Arashi moaned to herself as she began running toward the Academy, "I hope everyone's all right."

---

A scene of carnage filled Arashi's vision as she approached the Ninja Academy. Dead bodies, surrounded by crimson blood littered the ground, and the scent of gore wafted through the air. The door of the Ninja Academy had been blown open by some explosion, and what was left of the massive doors hung off the hinges. Two young Sand shinobi were standing, bored, around the door as the sound of fighting raged from inside. Arashi decided that it would be best to investigate inside. She would most likely find Kentaro and the rest of her unit inside.

The two Sand genin looked at her as she approached. One of them drew a kunai.

"Halt! None shall pass!" he yelled as he readied the kunai.

Arashi sighed.

"Why does Suna send a boy to do a man's work?" she asked the two guards.

The two Genin flushed red.

"We'll show you we can fight just as well as anyone else!" the other one shouted.

"Mmmm...I don't think you can, actually." Arashi smirked as she threw her parasol into the air. "One last chance to run before I introduce you to a world of pain!"

The two Sand Genin looked at each other, then charged.

"Oh well." Arashi mumbled to herself as she made the seals. "Senbon Rainstorm!"

The two Sand Genin dropped to the ground as a blizzard of senbon filled the air. Arashi sighed as she caught her parasol, the two boys lying paralyzed on the ground.

"You two, wait out the battle here. You won't be able to move for several hours at least. Maybe Konoha will be nice to you when they capture you!"

Arashi winked at them and headed into the Ninja Academy, leaving the two Genin moaning on the ground.

As Arashi gingerly picked her away across the dead Konoha chunin sprawled across the entrance hallway, a kunai whizzed by her head and embedded itself in the stone with a loud "thunk". She immediately jumped to the side and saw the fight. A Konoha shinobi, already riddled full of wounds by kunai and shuriken, was desperately trying to hold off a swarm of Sound and Sand shinobi from getting into a door which had already been forced open. The Konoha chunin's comrades lay dead all around him. Despite his mortal wounds, he was putting up a pretty good fight as he sent shuriken flying every which way as the mob advanced on him. Luckily, they hadn't yet noticed Arashi as the battle raged on.

Arashi drew two fistfuls of senbon. "No need to waste chakra on these guys." she thought to herself as she sent the deadly shower of needles at the Sand and Sound shinobi. There were several thumps as the group of enemies fell to the ground, lethal needles sticking out of the soft pressure points in their necks. Arashi ran toward the stricken Konoha ninja, her sandals clapping against the smooth stones of the Academy floor.

The chunin was slumped against the wall, his vest covered with both his blood and that of his enemies. He managed to raise his head and speak in a weak voice as Arashi approached him.

"We...got here...late. The..."

He paused and coughed up a mouthful of blood, red lines running down the sides of his mouth and dripping onto the floor.

"The...enemies...they got in. Kentaro...the others...they're fighting them in there. One last group of children...save them...please."

And with those last words, his eyes closed and his dying breath escaped him, his body still pinned to the wall by the kunai that had stolen his life.

Arashi rushed through the hallways, dodging corpses and trying to avoid slipping on the blood-slick tiles as she ran. She gasped as she kneeled down next to some of the corpses. A group of Konoha Ninja Academy Students lay slaughtered on the ground. They couldn't even have been ten years old...

A solitary tear rolled down Arashi's face and rippled into a bloody pool of lost innocence. Those monsters...how could they...

Arashi stood up, a fire in her eyes, her resolved hardened. She would destroy these honorless bstards. No person could do this and continue to call themselves a shinobi.

The sound of fighting filled the passage to her left. She raced down the passage, leaping over corpses as she searched for the source of the noises. As she got to a fork in the passage and turned the corner, she stifled a scream as she tripped over a kunai filled corpse.

Tetsuo lay in a pool of his own blood, his eyes closed in the eternal sleep of death. One wakazashi, shattered, was gripped tightly by his left hand. His other wakazashi, completely bathed in gore, lay a few feet away from him.

"Tetsuo..." Arashi whispered, still unbelieving of the state of the man she had come to love. She ran his hands over his face, the tears streaming down her face. "Tetsuo...why Tetsuo? We...we had a future..."

Her next sob was stifled in her throat as she saw the scene at the end of the hallway. Jiwari, slashed and bloody, and surrounded by the ashes of fallen opponents, but surrounded by many more opponents, was creating the seals of the forbidden jutsu that had been taught to him by the old hermit Arashi and Jiwari had once trained under.

"Brother...no..." Arashi mouthed at him as he completed the seals.

Somehow, through the red mist covering his vision, Jiwari managed to catch a glimpse of Arashi kneeling by Tetsuo's body as she stared at him. He gave her his final parting gift, a grin from their childhood when they had been young and happy, and then turned the power of his flame on himself.

Arashi almost passed out as the technique was completed.

"Forbidden Jutsu! SOUL INFERNO!" Jiwari screamed right before his body was consumed by the flames. The outline of what used to be Jiwari grew white, and then a fireball thundered down the passage, dissipating right before it reached Arashi. The smell of roasting flesh filled the air as the screams of all who had been caught in the path echoed through the hallway, the walls, floor, ceiling, and the door at the end of the hallway completely scorched black.

Arashi heard a barrage of footsteps echoing down the passage and pressed herself to the wall.

Four platoons of Sand and Sound shinobi ran to in front of the door, waves of heat still emanating off the walls and floor.

The leader turned to his platoons.

"It appears the last group of children are inside this room. Break the doors down."

A shinobi armed with twin axes began pounding the door, scorched wood splintering away under the onslaught. The screams of many children could be heard inside as they realized their fate.

"Arashi..." a weak voice gasped from the shadows around the corner.

Arashi crawled around the corner and came face to face with Kentaro. The old Jonin was slumped against the wall, blood trailing from his many wounds, his katana broken in half, his right arm missing from the elbow down.

"Arashi...I'm sorry...I failed them...I failed you..."

But Arashi wasn't listening. These demons. They killed children. They killed her brother and her lover. And they had even almost killed a shinobi who was long past his prime and should have been retired, not still fighting.

She picked up Tetsuo's wakazashi, fire coursing through her veins and a wild rage filling her heart. She turned back toward Kentaro.

"Hush now. I will avenge you."

And with that, she let loose a mighty roar and flew like a woman possessed down the hallway, wakazashi flashing as she cut down shinobi after shinobi. Limbs pinwheeled through the air and blood fountained all over the still warm stones as Arashi killed her way down the passage, her thirst for blood unquenched by the deaths of so few. Arashi fought as Tetsuo fought, with elegant grace and deadly accuracy, her strokes quick and efficient, lopping off a head here, thrusting through a heart there. She fought filled with fire as Jiwari had, her strokes powerful and killing, nothing able to block the vengeance-seeking kunoichi. She got to the end of the hallway and skewered the leader through the kidneys, then went after the ninja who was battering down the door.

His eyes widened as Arashi literally flew toward him. He put up one axe to block. Arashi battered it out of the way, the blade separating from the handle and clanging to the floor. The kunoichi lifted her blade up and brought it straight down. The Sand ninja lifted up his other axe to block, but it was to no avail as the sharp wakazashi sliced through the handle of the axe, cleaved through the ninja's skull, and split the enemy shinobi in half, blood geysering out of the two halves of his body as they fell to the floor.

Arashi, breathing heavily and covered with blood, put her head against the wall, and sobbed.

The battle wasn't over yet though. The last Sand shinobi, only wounded by her rampage through his comrades, charged at her, a huge bloodstained cleaver held in his hand and ready to butcher Arashi. He raised it over his head, gave a battle cry, and swung. Arashi tried to raise Tetsuo's wakazashi, but her limbs felt leaden and the Sand jonin easily battered the blade out of Arashi's hand, the bloodslick handle falling out of her grasp. He raised his cleaver again, and struck, the edge of the cleaver biting into iron hard flesh and embedding itself in the bone.

---

Arashi gasped as Kentaro stood before her, the cleaver stuck in his midsection - the blade buried in his ribs, but his broken katana's jagged edge thrust through the Sand ninja's stomach. The Sand shinobi coughed up some blood, a shocked look still on his face, then slumped to the floor, dead.

"But...why...?" Arashi managed to ask.

Kentaro raised his head and spoke in a voice that was both weak and strong at the same time.

"Because...you have a future. You have hope. You carry the shining beacon of youth in your heart. And also, because you have honor."

He spat out blood onto the floor.

"You...may not know this, but I was once of the Mist Village also."

Arashi gasped. Of course! How could she have forgotten the stories they told of Kentaro, the Smiling Cat, the man who brought honor to those who had none? He had been one of the greatest jonins of Mist Village, but had disappeared on a mission to betray one of the Mist Village's allies. They said he would rather die then accomplish a mission without honor. He hadn't died...but had lent his services to a Village that still had the honor of old.

More footsteps in the distance. Arashi readied herself to fight, but Kentaro shook his head and formed some seals with his one remaining hand. A shining wall of light shot up on the opposite side of the fork, between the approaching enemy platoons and Kentaro and Arashi. The first man to charge the wall screamed as the light consumed him, literally annihilating his soul.

Kentaro spoke again to Arashi.

"That wall...is composed of my will. Those without honor will not be able to pass. I don't know how long I can hold it for, but it will do for the last mission I will assign to you."

He took off his forehead protector and handed it and a key to Arashi.

"This is my legacy to you. Lead the children out of here."

"But...what about you?" Arashi managed to ask.

"I gave up my honor once when I abandoned my village. Today, I go to reclaim my lost glory."

Kentaro stood up straighter, and seemed to glow with a power Arashi had never seen before as he strode toward the wall of light, his broken katana gripped in his one good hand.

Before he passed through the glowing barrier, he turned around and gave Arashi one final sentence.

"I will not accept... an ending... without honor."

With that, he passed through the white light, and the screams of the enemy began as the Smiling Cat fulfilled his duty to the village.

Arashi looked at the headband she was holding, tears streaming down her face and dripping onto the scratched and scarred metal. She knew what Kentaro meant. She had abandoned her village and lost her honor. But he had given her a way to reclaim it.

"Today," she whispered as she tied Kentaro's foreheard protector onto her forehead, "I am a ninja of Konoha."

Arashi used the key and opened the splintered door. The children inside gasped as the bloodcovered kunoichi walked inside.

"Come on...let's get you guys out of here."

The children shuffled after her as she led them out the door, several of them giving cries of shock at the dead shinobi scattered all over the hallway and the muffled sounds of fighting coming from beyond the wall of light.

Arashi turned back toward the children and beckoned them, a peaceful look on her face as they headed out of the destroyed Academy.

"Don't worry. I will protect you all... with my life!"

---

Epilogue:

In the aftermath of the Destruction of Konoha, Arashi was accepted by the village as a full Jonin for her services during the battle.

They found the body of Kentaro amidst the corpses of thirty enemy Sand and Sound shinobi, with his trademark catlike smile still on his face. There was no doubt among the villagers that he had reclaimed his lost honor.

On the Hero's Rock, in addition to all the other ninja of Konoha who had fallen during Orochimaru's attack, three names were highlighted for showing exceptional bravery in defending the village's future. Tetsuo and Jiwari were both posthumously accepted as honorary members of the Leaf Ninja Forces. Kentaro, the Smiling Cat of Konoha, received his name beneath that of Sandaime Hokage, both clear examples of those who possessed the will of Fire.

That day, Arashi of Mist Village died, and Arashi, the Blue Flame of Konoha, was born.

With her new family, she mourned the falling of so many heroes of Konoha, but also celebrated the dawn of a new age.


End file.
